Rep. Michael McCaul says report on Trump assassination attempt could be out by end of year

Rep. Michael McCaul said there could be a report done about the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump by the end of this year.

“I think so,” the Texas Republican said Sunday on the CBS News show “Face the Nation,” when asked if the report was possible.

“I went out to the site. I went up to the rooftop. This individual should’ve never been that close to the president of the United States. It was very, very close. And the fact that he even got there in the first place was a failure. It should have been stopped,” he told host Robert Costa.

“What’s interesting, Robert, is that he had a detonation device on him and two bombs in the car. What his plan was, was to assassinate the president, create a diversion by blowing up his vehicle on the other side of the property, and then he could escape,” he said.

Last week, the House voted on a bipartisan basis to move forward with a task force to look into the Butler County, Pennsylvania, incident that left Mr. Trump and two attendees wounded and one dead. The shooter was also killed.

Mr. McCaul, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a past chairman of the Homeland Security panel, said he wants to see “professionalism” and “experience” when it comes to those on the task force, but doesn’t know whether he will personally take part in it.

He said he was glad to see former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle doing the right thing by resigning.

“Each time you have an attempted assassination, that is a failure. And she said that herself. I think the agents are good,” he said. “The problem is the president is under a lot of threats obviously, and one from Iran as well. They asked for additional agents, they were not given that.”

Ms. Cheatle resigned last week after she faced a tough House hearing on the incident and lawmakers called on her to do so.

The FBI said Friday that Mr. Trump was indeed struck by a bullet after there was some confusion over what caused the blood from his ear.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement.